When Susanna Haswell Rowson wrote her play “Slaves in Algiers” in 1794, many people in America and Europe were fascinated by stories about the Orient. The exotic tales from faraway countries with strange animals, hot deserts, magnificent palaces, and captured sailors attracted many readers. It did not matter if the described events were true or not, as long as they provided an exciting story with Oriental scenery. Writers then created their own picture of the Orient, often with exaggerating fantasy. The interesting aspect of Rowson’s play is therefore her view of the Oriental people and their culture in contrast to the American people and their culture. She creates a specific picture of the Arabic culture and its people to show the advantages of the American values. It is also notable how she describes the difference of the sexes and their struggle for liberty in a foreign land. Rowson describes in “Slaves in Algiers”, with the help of the characters, her opinions on liberty, emancipation, and white slavery in the Orient. Rowson’s description of the Orient and the Arabic culture in the drama is her device to show the superiority of American values and the importance of liberty in every society. The historical context and the definition of Orientalism serve as a basis to understand her opinions.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Historical Context
3. White Slavery
4. “Slaves in Algiers”
5. Orientalism
6. Oriental Architecture and Symbols in “Slaves in Algiers
7. Characters and Stereotypes
7.1. The Dey
7.2. The Oriental People
7.3. Ben Hassan and the Veil
8. Liberty
9. Gender Relationship
10. Conclusion.
11. Works Cited
1. Introduction
When Susanna Haswell Rowson wrote her play “Slaves in Algiers” in 1794, many people in America and Europe were fascinated by stories about the Orient. The exotic tales from faraway countries with strange animals, hot deserts, magnificent palaces, and captured sailors attracted many readers. It did not matter if the described events were true or not, as long as they provided an exciting story with Oriental scenery. Writers then created their own picture of the Orient, often with exaggerating fantasy. The interesting aspect of Rowson’s play is therefore her view of the Oriental people and their culture in contrast to the American people and their culture. She creates a specific picture of the Arabic culture and its people to show the advantages of the American values. It is also notable how she describes the difference of the sexes and their struggle for liberty in a foreign land. Rowson describes in “Slaves in Algiers”, with the help of the characters, her opinions on liberty, emancipation, and white slavery in the Orient. I will argue in the following that Rowson’s description of the Orient and the Arabic culture in the drama is her device to show the superiority of American values and the importance of liberty in every society. The historical context and the definition of Orientalism serve as a basis to understand her opinions.
2. Historical Context
The Barbary Coast during Rowson’s life extended from Egypt to the Atlantic Ocean. Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya were commonly known as the Barbary states, notorious as havens for pirates, who raided ships and imprisoned sailors and travelers for ransom. The Corsairs especially helped Algiers to gain power in the Mediterranean Sea in the 17th century. At the end of the 18th century, many countries paid a tribute to Algiers to guarantee safety for their ships. Nevertheless, many crews from ships were kidnapped and helped the province to gain wealth.
“For over a decade (1785-1797), during the almost ‘forgotten American-Algerian War’ (Barnby), Barbary corsairs captured American ships and led their captains and crews into captivity. When Rowson’s and Tyler’s works appeared, the conflict had reached its climax” (Schöpp 292). Many US slaves were held captive and this endangered the American values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The captivity narrative in turn became immensely popular, displaying the life of white slaves in the Barbary States. It became the patriotic duty of that time to save the enslaved American people (cf. Schöpp 293). The success of Americans during the Barbary Wars was small, because of the long distance between the US and Algiers and too few war ships. Instead of fighting they agreed on paying ransom: “By the end of the Tripolitan War (1801-5) the United States had signed treaties with each of the Barbary states, and predation on American shipping virtually ended” (Baepler 20). European countries proved to be more successful: Algiers was finally conquered by the French Army in 1830, which then became a colony without pirates.
3. White Slavery
During the 17th and 18th centuries, several thousand people were captured by Corsairs in the Mediterranean Sea. They were either held as slaves or for ransom: “White slaves in Barbary were generally from impoverished families, and had almost as little hope of buying back their freedom as the Africans taken to the Americas: most would end their days as slaves in North Africa, dying of starvation, disease, or maltreatment” (Davis). Some of the slaves were housed in large cellars, often in overcrowded and dirty conditions. Most slaves were used to row the corsair galleys in pursuit of more goods and more slaves.
Slavery in the Barbary States was different from slavery in the United States, where the slaves were directly brought from Africa to work on the fields. They were not supposed to be set free again for ransom: “Barbary slaves were not born into captivity or stolen from their homeland; they ventured into dangers as travelers engaged in mercantile or military enterprises. Furthermore, many white captives were eventually ransomed and liberated from their slavery” (Baepler 28). A huge amount of money was transferred to the Barbary States to release some of the prisoners. Especially women endured a hard time, when being captured. Most of them had to serve the ruling pasha, either in the harem or as servants, until they were released. Some of these slaves, men and women, then wrote about their experiences as prisoners in the Barbary States, many with great success. Captivity narratives, usually heavily romanticized, proved to be very popular at end of the 18th century (cf. Darraj).
4. “Slaves in Algiers”
Susanna Haswell Rowson’s play “Slaves in Algiers” from 1794 is a comedy-melodrama about a group of Americans held captive in Algiers. Rebecca is one of the main characters. Being in search for her captured husband, she “civilizes” the Oriental women by teaching them about liberty. Fetnah is one of those women. She hates being captured and, like the others, wants to escape from Algiers.
“These Algerian slaves ‘learn’ about liberty from the American captives and plot their own revolt. Witnessing the Americans’ willingness to die for their freedom, however, the dey has a change of heart, liberates his slaves, and abolishes slavery in Algiers” (Baepler 47). On the surface level, the play was part of a wide public effort in the early 1790s to stir sympathy for the real white captives of the time. But “Slaves in Algiers” is equally dedicated to display the commitment of Rowson to advocate for women’s rights in the new Republic. Especially women have therefore major roles in the play and exercise power. “Faced with conventional restraints on writing about women's issues, Rowson found the Orient could be a convenient backdrop that dispensed those constrictions and simultaneously offered ‘an enabling sexual space for women’ (65)” (Darraj).
Rowson had never visited Algiers or other oriental cities. Her knowledge derived from stories and reports by other writers like Royall Tyler: “Rowson set her scenes in palace gardens and hid her characters behind fig trees, but she too seemed only slightly acquainted or little concerned with specific facts about the nation” (Parker 68). Rowson’s view of the Orient is rather negative, which helps to see the American values in a very positive light.
5. Orientalism
Rowson’s knowledge of the Orient derived from different sources, among them stories told by American people who visited these countries or served as slaves themselves. She had no real experience with the Arabic culture and had to create her own picture of Algiers, influenced by her western view: “Orientalism is a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between ‘the Orient’ and (most of the time) ‘the Occident’” (Said 2).
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